Recommended Posts

Devlin P. Whitehorn

Devlin P. Whitehorn

It had been less than a year since she last stepped onto Hogwarts’s grounds, but that didn’t stop a wave of nostalgia wash over Trish as she arrived for the seminar she had been asked to give. Or she had asked to give, if honesty was key here. Trish had jumped at the chance to get out of the Nimbus Broom Company offices, already tired of all the expectations weighing down on her.

She couldn’t really say that she was jealous that the Triwizard Tournament had returned the year after she left Hogwarts. She’d done the whole wizarding tournament thing back in her sixth year, and though things hadn’t worked out perfectly with that, she was proud of what she and Team Death Tower had accomplished. Let others have a chance at fame and fortune. She had Abby and that was all that mattered.

Setting up her things on the Hogwarts grounds didn’t take nearly as long as she thought it would. Probably a good sign, since it meant she wouldn’t have a hard time taking everything back down once it was over. Looking over the obstacle course to make sure nothing was out of place, she heard voices growing louder and realized that the students had arrived.

It was weird to think she wasn’t a student anymore.

Turning to the group standing around, she smiled to the faces of those she recognized.

“Good morning, everyone! For those of you who don’t know who I am, my name is Trish Whitehorn and I am here to represent the Nimbus Broom Company.” She tried to inject her voice with the same amount of confidence she’d heard in Professor James’ voice when she had studied under her.

“The Nimbus Broom Company was established in 1967 by my grandfather, Devlin Whitehorn. While there have been many competitors over the years, few have been able to match the quality in a Nimbus broomstick.” Hopefully no one tried to ask her about the Firebolt. It was a bit of a sore spot for her still.

While she still had everyone’s attention, Trish went over the fundamentals of what made a good broomstick and what went into making a broom at her family’s company. At the end of her speech, she took a deep breath. Worst part was over. Now they could get to the fun stuff.

“For the past few months, I have been working to develop my own prototype to be submitted for consideration with the Nimbus Broom Company. With permission from both my company and the Hogwarts faculty and staff, you all are going to be the ones to test the broom here today. Don’t worry,” she added, seeing a few displeased looks in the crowd. “I do have other brooms you get to use, but I do recommend taking my prototype into consideration.

“There has been an obstacle course set up on the grounds.” Trish gestured around her, bringing attention to the many hoops and weaving poles she had set up. “Using the brooms provided, you will each get a chance to complete the obstacle course. The three students with the fastest completion times—and who complete the course using my prototype broom—gets a custom, one-of-a-kind broom from the Nimbus Broom Company.”

She looked over the group of students once more. “Though I do not see it happening, if one of you get hurt by chance, my fiancée Miss @Abigail Goodfellow over there will be on hand to patch you up. She has spent a number of terms working in the Hospital Wing and St. Mungo’s, so you will be in excellent hands.”

Abby waved from the small medical station she and Trish had set up earlier.

“If there aren’t any questions, please pick a broom and line up for a chance at the obstacle course!”

-----

OOC: Hey everyone! As you are probably aware by this point, since the Triwizard Tournament is going on, the mods and officials have generously allowed workshops to take the place of the usual Quidditch matches this VH year. And because I’ll take any excuse to have Trish talk about brooms, I thought I’d have her do a workshop on the subject.

Here is how the obstacle course is going to work:

1) The obstacle course is set up in phases, with each phase having a certain activity related to it

-Each post an individual makes constitutes one phase of the course. At the end of your post, please include a number between 1 and 20 in bold.

-I’ll pop in occasionally and roll a d20 dice to determine if you fail or succeed at that phase of the course. For example: Juan’s post has a 12 at the bottom in bold. I roll my d20 and get a 5. Juan’s number is greater, so he succeeds

- If I roll the same number as you, you fail the phase (so don’t get cute and think you’ll automatically win if you pick 20)

-If you fail against one of my rolls, you have to redo the phase of the course that you’re in

-If you fail a phase twice, you get to automatically move on to the next phase

-This will continue on until the seminar ends, at which point I’ll select the three people who got the farthest (or who got there in the fastest amount of time) and they’ll IC receive a custom broom from Trish. Once the shops open, I’ll buy the winners a broom for their profiles

-Because this seminar is going to be open for the rest of term, I would greatly appreciate it if at the top of each post you include what phase you’re on in bold

2) All Hogwarts students are welcome. Delegates may join as well, but any QP earned under a delegate will not be transferred. If professors want to join, you’re welcome to as well, though Trish will wonder what you’re doing there (and you won’t earn QP. Probably).

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me here or on Discord.

Phase One is….getting off the ground! Good luck!

[Phases will be updated here for easy reference]

-I: Getting off the ground

-II: Fly through three shrinking/growing hoops

-III: Flying over the lake while avoiding the bludgers

-IV: Mini-maze of poles

-V: Cross that finish line

Edited 29 July 2018, 04:03 am by Devlin P. Whitehorn

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Seeley Pichardo

Seeley Pichardo

In all honesty, Seeley wasn't entirely sure why she kept coming to all of these quidditch workshops. Maybe it was just because she enjoyed finding other ways to get a good workout in, or maybe it was because it was something different to do when she needed to get out of the castle but either way here was another one... and here she was.

But, even she had to admit getting to test out a new broom was kind of - no, really cool.

Grabbing one and tossing her leg over she didn't think anything of it when she kicked off the ground and attempted to take flight. Key word here being attempted? Because apparently, getting off the ground wasn't exactly a given.

16

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Zara Anguariz

Zara Anguariz

There was never a shortage of quidditch events going on this term. Zara's only wish that the quidditch cup would come back so that they can win the cup like Slytherin had done during her first year. She was surprised to see two of her old team mates were in charge of the seminar. Nodding to both of them, Zara was eager to try out one of the new brooms.

After grabbing one of them, Zara mounted the broom and looked at the obstacle course in front of her. Thinking it didn't look to bad and better than the maze, she kicked off the ground and headed towards the first part of the course.

11

Edited 2 July 2018, 11:44 pm by Zara Anguariz

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Julian Pritchard

Julian Pritchard

Yet another seminar. This time, though, Julian had definitely thought to bring his blue helmet with him, lest they have to dodge any more bludgers. He was infinitely grateful that he had as soon as the person in charge of the seminar explained what was going on. They were testing a broom, apparently, and Julian - who did not trust brooms to be particularly safe on the best of days - was sure this meant they were all going to die.

Eyeing the brooms suspiciously, Julian picked one of the ones that weren’t prototypes (he thought so anyway; he didn’t know enough about brooms to be able to pick them apart) and tried to coax it up. Once the broom had thought to obey, he swung one of his legs over, clung to the handle and attempted to kick off.

Phase 1: 20

Edited 3 July 2018, 02:08 am by Julian Pritchardtypos

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Adrina Althaus-Valerio

Adrina Althaus-Valerio

Having officially completed flying class, Addy was feeling a little lost without any time or chances to spend on a broom and so the young hufflepuff was very excited when she heard there would be yet another quidditch event for her to take part in. She eagerly stood by waiting for the opportunity to grab one of the brooms from the moment that she noticed them and rushed over when they were told it was time.

She wanted to be the first and get the best one.

Finding one that looked shiny and pristine (never mind that they all looked that way) the first year set on her mission of getting it into the air.

9

Edited 2 July 2018, 11:50 pm by Adrina Althaus-Valerio

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Jaxon Sinclair

Jaxon Sinclair

Jack was...not super sure about using a prototype broom and his nose wrinkled at the idea of having to use it. "Is this safe?" he asked cautiously, examining it for any and all defaults. His parents, one of which had been a professional quidditch player, were broom connoisseurs. He liked to fancy himself some sort of expert, though certainly the opposite was true.

Eventually, he managed to get one of those prototypes up and swung his leg over it. Now, whether or not it flew with any competency was another question. Jack had his own doubts and sort of suspected they'd all crash and burn but if the other seminars were to be called 'evidence' for the safety standard at Hogwarts....

Well, then Jack was probably correct.

Edited 3 July 2018, 12:18 am by Jaxon Sinclair

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Kelby Matos

Kelby Matos

Once again, Kelby wandered around Hogwarts looking for things to do and ended up regretting her life when she, not for the first time, signed up for something without paying attention to what she signed up for. Sometimes, the stuff turned out awesome like the Dueling Tournament or the Dodgeball game, and sometimes, it was pretty subpar. That’s how each of the Quidditch/flying seminars had turned out so far, and yet, Kelby found herself still going to them like she actually liked flying or something? If she were being honest, the first year had no reason as to what compelled her to do the stupid things she did, but yet, she kept getting herself stuck in crazy situations.

This one was even worse when she realized she was supposed to somehow get a prototype broom off the ground. Kelby didn’t even know what prototype meant, but it didn’t sound pleasant.

… She was probably going to die.

18

phase one || post one || word count: 159

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Leah Princeley

Leah Princeley

Leah was doing her first seminar. Then again the ravenclaw fourth year was also pretty sure that her cousin wouldn't be there. So the blonde eagerly made way to where it being held at. Sure she knew that sign up something other dueling wasnt in her vocabulary. But this seminar didn't see that to hard for her.

She listen to what the alumni student had say . Well a prototype broom seem somewhat cool. She did help she didn't get that broom because if she got injury. Well her dad probably wouldn't let her play again next year.

So she got on a broom and start off from the air . " Oh this should be fun." she said. Also she was sure that she wasnt going die!

13

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Desmond Potter

Desmond Potter

While he didn’t like going work at all, these workshops would help Desmond in the end. The funny thing was, this time it was from someone that he knew was at this school not that long ago. Crazy how that was possible, but he didn’t care at all.

He needed to get off the ground and try his hardest to pass this one. Since the maze was a lot harder then he would have ever believed.

Now it was time to listen and get off the ground. Desmond could do this. It wouldn’t be that hard at all.

2

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Ethan Smith

Ethan Smith

The only reason that Ethan was standing next to a broom and attempting to get on it. Was because of training reasons. With everything that was happening in the tournament, he knew that he had to get off his butt and not be scared. He might have to fly in one of them.

Walking out to where someone else was, he looked at the broom, and then looked back. Taking a breath, Ethan felt like this was something he could do.

After all, he did fly around with Kat and nothing happened at all.

7

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Viola Wayland

Viola Wayland

"Trish, you came back!" Viola cheered. "And you brought Abby!" The other visitors who had returned to host seminars had been old so Viola hadn't expected to see her former teammates. "This is the best!" Viola had not yet been so pleased to have decided to attend a seminar. As a girl who typically did not like surprises ... she really liked this surprise! It was really too bad that all surprises weren't like this one.

"We can catch up after, right?" she asked, because if that was not the case she was definitely going to skip the flying parts of the seminar to socialize. Or perhaps if she completed the flying quickly, she could then talk with the girls? Thinking this was a good idea, Viola grabbed a broom and attempted to take off.

#11

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Jacqueline Golden-Keisi

Jacqueline Golden-Keisi

Another seminar was happening, and naturally JJ was here. All of the seminars had reminded her that she was actually rather good at quidditch - and this in turn fueled her passion for the sport, which made her want to attend more seminars. The cycle reinforced itself, and now JJ was trapped in it; she couldn't have skipped a seminar if she'd tried! But of course, she was enjoying herself, so it wasn't like she would've wanted to miss one anyway.

She quietly took her position near the starting line, selecting a broom and preparing with confidence. When the time came, she kicked off as usual and hoped for the best.

#13

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Gracie-Mae Goodwin

Gracie-Mae Goodwin

Gracie-Mae was so excited! Her flying skills were still in need of a lot of improvement, and it was like Hogwarts knew. First year there'd been flying lessons, and apparently she was now too old for those but that didn't matter because they'd been replaced by seminars which meant that Gracie-Mae could effectively continue her education where flying was concerned. At this rate, she might actually be able to get around without fearing death!

Eager for all the practice she could get, the Gryffindor stepped up and fearlessly mounted a broom. Time to fly! Or whatever it was that she did that approximated flying, since her usual attempts probably didn't deserve to be called actual 'flying'.

#15

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Kermit Princeley

Kermit Princeley

Kermit had no reason why he kept coming to the quidditch workshops. In just under a term, he would be graduating from Hogwarts. His sixth year had been his final year of playing quidditch due to the tournament. It wasn’t as if he needed the extra practice for his future with working with creatures.

Still, flying sounded like it would be a break from his studies and the thoughts he had regarding his final year. Kermit swung his leg over the broomstick and kicked off the ground. He was certain that this would go a lot better than the model dragons.

19

Edited 3 July 2018, 09:58 pm by Kermit Princeley

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Cordelia Waldegrave

Cordelia Waldegrave

Frantically rushing towards the quidditch pitch, Cordelia mentally cursed Kermit Fourteen, who wouldn’t get his slimy bum off of her quidditch seminar announcement. No idea what she was walking into, she really hoped her wand and or blowtorch was needed, because both were somewhere in her corner. Oh good there was a medic on standby, always a relief for someone as accident prone as herself.

Mounting her broom, Cordelia was nervous to say the least as she kicked off the ground with her thunder thighs courtesy of the bazillion stairs in the castle.

11

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Addison Toft

Addison Toft

First a maze, now an obstacle course. By the time this year was done, Addison was going to be a broom-flying pro. And if not a pro, then an adequate broom-flier. Most likely adequate, over professional, but she could dream.

Silas told her she didn't need to practise flying that much, that it was okay she wasn't the best at it and that she didn't need to force herself to do this just to be able to throw a quaffle around, but she wanted to do it. At this point, she was invested, having attended several seminars, so she figured she might as well see it through to the end. If by the end she was still poor at flying, then that meant she was destined to be awful for the rest of her life.

Lining up with broom in hand, she set it in the air and began to hover off the ground.

Phase One: 19 (n-n-n-n-n-n-nineteen)

WC: 154

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Morty Gabor

Morty Gabor

Nimbus, huh? Morty had flown some good matches on an 01, of course, most beaters had at some point in their middle years, but she’d always preferred the Firebolt. Morty also knew better than to say so, for a number of reasons including that you didn’t admit to liking the competition before mounting up on a prototype Nimbus.

And she did immediately volunteer to fly a prototype. Morty wasn’t about to pass up the chance to fly something untested and only probably safe.

“Up!” Morty suggested to the prototype broom, because she liked to kick it old school sometimes.

17

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Drew Knight

Drew Knight

In hockey, your equipment was charged with saving your teeth, your bones, and quite possibly your life. As a goalie who by regulation played in a full cage mask and so much padding that he looked twice his own size, Drew was less than comfortable with the idea of playing fast and loose with untested equipment. With absolutely no offense intended to the nice pair of women running this activity, he casually bypassed the prototype brooms and went for the non-prototype type.

“I’ll be the control group,” he muttered to anyone who might be close enough to hear him. “That way you guys on the prototypes have something to compare to.”

He’d been learning how to set up good experiments. He was 100% sure that this was entirely sound reasoning.

15

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Nicodemus Knight

Nicodemus Knight

Nico wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to take a new, potentially super-fast, broom for a test drive.As one of Ravenclaw’s most seasoned fliers, he’d been through his share of tough matches, and kept swinging that beater’s bat anyway.Heck, if I could snag one of those custom brooms, who knows what I could go on to do.

Nico knew that the broom didn’t make the flier… but having quality equipment certainly didn’t hurt your chances either.“Alright, let’s give this thing a go!”

19

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Fiona Weaver

Fiona Weaver

Whether it was her prefect responsibilities or her HWA ones, Fiona kept feeling the need to attend these quidditch sessions. She had long since realized that the safest way to improve her own flying skills would just be to sign a broom out of the shed sometime and practice on her own. Attending these wasn’t really about her own flying anymore, though. It had more to do with the idea of large groups of first-years and younger students flying prototype brooms or racing dragons. There probably was no such thing as too little supervision here.

Nobody could know that Fiona was essentially here to mother them, though, so she had to blend in. The Hufflepuff grabbed a non-prototype broom and kicked off.

19

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Devlin P. Whitehorn

Devlin P. Whitehorn

Shrugging off the queries as to how safe it was to be flying a prototype broom--if there was a real problem, Trish was pretty sure she'd have never been given the all clear to hold this seminar--Trish smiled at Viola. "Hey there, darling! Yeah, we're gonna be here awhile, so we can catch up later. I've missed you!"

And here it was, the moment of truth. How many people would actually get into the air? Trish had tried it a few times herself, and had encountered no problems, but there was always the chance that there were variables she hadn't considered.

Seeing the number of people that successfully became airborn, Trish let out a relieved breath. "Okay, guys, you're doing well!" She smiled at the ones still on the ground. "Try one more time for me?" she asked them, hoping they'd take her up on it.

---OOC: Sorry for the delay! Hopefully my internet starts cooperating with me and I can post here more quickly. And if I skipped a name by mistake, please let me know.

Phase 2: Now that you're in the air, fly through a series of three hoops in a straight line. Careful though! The hoops are enchanted to shrink and grow at random intervals. Will you be able to make it through in time?

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Seeley Pichardo

Seeley Pichardo

A wave of relief washed over her as her broom lifted off the ground. Success. She didn't want to look like a complete failure at all of this even if she had quit the team and she definitely wasn't the slightest bit concerned with anything like safety. She could handle herself. Rising into the air, she looked to Trish for their next challenge and then gave the older girl a salute.

Through the hoops? No problem! Wrapping her hands around the broom she leaned forward and took off, she had stealth on the ground and had played as a chaser each and every game she'd ever played. She had this in the bag.

18

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Adrina Althaus-Valerio

Adrina Althaus-Valerio

What was wrong with this broom? Addy did all the right things? She'd been flying on brooms her whole life! Sure when she was younger they had been kiddy brooms but that shouldn't matter. She knew what to do. Why wasn't this working?! "Something is wrong with this broom!" She pouted and huffed at the lady in charge of all this. Why had she brought broken brooms to this thing anyway?!

The first year frowned as she watched a bunch of other students taking off and moving on to the next activity as she spun on her heel and ran off to find another broom. Hopefully they weren't all gone. She needed to find one that wasn't broken.

15

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Avery Potter

Avery Potter

One of her favourite subjects within the first term had been flying class. Avery had arrived believing that she knew the basics already, leaving with the knowledge that there was always a lot more to learn. She was eager for any chance that gave her the ability to fly.

There was no hesitation within her as she grabbed one of the school brooms. She was ready to try this out. First step? Getting the broomstick to jump into her hand. Avery hoped that was a lot easier that what she thought it would be. Surely there was a reason that was a task?

13

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Morty Gabor

Morty Gabor

At Morty’s command, the prototype broom jumped readily into her hand. She gave an approving nod and swung a leg over the broomstick. Kicking off from the ground, Morty didn’t bother with meek test-hovers. Instead, she attempted to spur the prototype broom more or less from a standstill to a sprint. Because she was pretty light, Morty could get some good quick acceleration out of a broom when she tried.

“So far so good!” she called cheerfully to @Devlin P. Whitehorn as she zipped by, and gave the Slytherin alumnae a thumbs up. “I’m gonna try the hoops!”

She tucked in close to the broomstick for a more streamlined profile, then aimed for the first hoop.